Elbow....can you learn how to write lyrics/poetry.....

[dave_s13]

or are you just born to do it?

Elbow - Mirrorball said:

I plant the kind of kiss
That wouldn't wake a baby
On the self same face
The lie wouldn't let me sleep
And the street is singing with my feet
And dawn gives me a shadow I know to be taller
All down to you, dear
Everything has changed

On what it feels like when you meet someone special.

Elbow - Tower crane driver said:

I must have been working the ropes
When your hand slipped from mine
Now I live off the mirrors and smoke
It's a joke, a fix, a lie
Come on, tower crane driver
Oh so far to fall

On a bloke that came into a pub claiming to be the highest paid tower crane driver in Manchester....but was actually a to$$er, disliked by most and left by his wife.

Elbow - Weather to fly said:

We have the driver and time on our hands
One little room and the biggest of plans.
The days were shaping up,
Frosty and bright.
Perfect weather to fly.

On starting up a band, learning how you work and not selling out.

Elbow - Friend of Ours said:

Before leaving get to the bar
No one round here makes you pay
Never very good at goodbyes
So gentle shoulder charge
Love you mate

Love you mate

Salford skyline gloom
Always you
Could fly round any corner
But until you do
Love you mate

Tribute to the late Brian Glancy

In case you haven't guess I've been listening to Seldom Seen Kid quite a bit recently, but only just took the time to find out what the songs mean, one interpretation of anyway.

How the fvck does Guy Garvey write words in such a way as to paint pictures in you mind, did he do an NVQ fooking spellbinding sonmongery...level 3....or do you just have to be born to do it?

Anyone else think this stuff is just genius??

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 13th February 20:33

[Mystic Slippers]

Thumbs up from me, love the album

[missdiane]

Powder Blue from 'Asleep in Back' does it for me

powder blue said:

Your eyes are just like black spiders
Your hair and dress in ribbons. Babycakes
In despair or incoherent. Nothing in between
China white, my bride tonight
Smiling on the tiles

Bring that minute back
We never get so close as when the sunward flight begins

I share it all with you
Powder blue
Stumble through the crowds together
They're trying to ignore us. That's o.k.
I'm proud to be the one you hold when the shakes begin

Sallow skinned, starry eyed, blessed
In our sin
Bring that minute back
We never get so close to death
Makes you so alive
I share it all with you
Powder blue

Another couple of lovelies/oddlies

Cast of 1000's

Flying dream 143 said:

I stretched out my arms
And my feet left the floor
And how all fifteen (ahem) stone flew to you
I don't know

and

Crawling with idiot said:

It's crawling with idiot
I'm itching to leave
I'm soft with fatigue I need something

I've never seen anything quite like you
In here

Chorus
Come on it's not serious
I just need arms tonight

You're blue collar pride
And you're loose cotton cool
You're wilting a little
Nothing grows down here

Chrome
Smoke
Heat
Me and you

Edited by missdiane on Friday 13th February 23:30

[missdiane]

I could go on all night, they are all fantastic

[dumbfunk]

A little natural disposition and a massive shed load of practice.
It helps if you have a decade's worth of blank paper to hand too.

[maddog993]

missdiane said:

I could go on all night, they are all fantastic

I'll happily keep it going; I still love 'Newborn' - the first Elbow song I ever heard - I was an instant convert;

Holding me shaking
Awake in the dark
All of these promises
Kept and unbroken
Tracing the scars
Tracing the scars
Even and cold
As we both become older.
Your arms bound about me
The hush in your voice.
The warmth of your fingers
Entwined around mine
In the eve of our lives
Never a choice

[MoesTavern]

Been getting into them recently actually, he does seem to have a knack for evocative lyrics.
The line "Lying with me half-awake" from One Day Like This made me stop in my tracks and think of a certain someone

[dibbly_dobbler]

dave_s13 said:

or are you just born to do it?

Elbow - Mirrorball said:

I plant the kind of kiss
That wouldn't wake a baby
On the self same face
The lie wouldn't let me sleep
And the street is singing with my feet
And dawn gives me a shadow I know to be taller
All down to you, dear
Everything has changed

On what it feels like when you meet someone special.

Elbow - Tower crane driver said:

I must have been working the ropes
When your hand slipped from mine
Now I live off the mirrors and smoke
It's a joke, a fix, a lie
Come on, tower crane driver
Oh so far to fall

On a bloke that came into a pub claiming to be the highest paid tower crane driver in Manchester....but was actually a to$$er, disliked by most and left by his wife.

Elbow - Weather to fly said:

We have the driver and time on our hands
One little room and the biggest of plans.
The days were shaping up,
Frosty and bright.
Perfect weather to fly.

On starting up a band, learning how you work and not selling out.

Elbow - Friend of Ours said:

Before leaving get to the bar
No one round here makes you pay
Never very good at goodbyes
So gentle shoulder charge
Love you mate

Love you mate

Salford skyline gloom
Always you
Could fly round any corner
But until you do
Love you mate

Tribute to the late Brian Glancy

In case you haven't guess I've been listening to Seldom Seen Kid quite a bit recently, but only just took the time to find out what the songs mean, one interpretation of anyway.

How the fvck does Guy Garvey write words in such a way as to paint pictures in you mind, did he do an NVQ fooking spellbinding sonmongery...level 3....or do you just have to be born to do it?

Anyone else think this stuff is just genius??

Edited by dave_s13 on Friday 13th February 20:33

Born to it I would say. Genius like the above can't be learned...

I think you have a small typo btw - it should be:

Elbow - Mirrorball said:

I plant the kind of kiss
That wouldn't wake a baby
On the self same face
That wouldn't let me sleep
And the street is singing with my feet
And dawn gives me a shadow I know to be taller
All down to you, dear
Everything has changed

[Dai Capp]

A whole bunch of talent honed with a lot of practice is usually the recipe for skillful songwriting and poetry - I like the wordsmithery of Lloyd Cole and Morrisey in terms of songwriting.

There was a documentary on the TV a short while ago about Wilfred Owen and they went into some detail about how Siegfried Sassoon worked with him to improve his work. The detail they would go into was quite amazing, working on a single word level to ensure the meaning they wanted to convey was perfectly created.

I would imagine many of the really good lyric writers also spend hours playing with the way a word sounds both spoken and sung...

Cheers

DC

[Zod]

Mirrorball is the least cheesy, most beautiful love song written for years.

Guy Garvey is a great lyricist, but he also delivers the lines perfectly.

[Zod]

he even does politics well. Leaders of the Free World is clever in its lyrics, angry and disappointed in its delivery and exciting inits musical drive:

I'm sick of working for a living
I'm just ticking off the days till I die
Oh, I miss you Louise, yeah...
And the sickest little pleasures keep me going in between pulling teeth

Oh periscope up
I've been looking for a ladder
I need to see the commander in chief
And remind him what was passed onto me

Your mum don't sleep!
And the friends you keep!
I didn't raise a thief!
I didn't raise a thief!

But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And it's easy to ignore
Till they're knocking on the door of your homes

My thinking isn't driven
But the music always gives me a lift
I'm so easy to please, yeah
But I think we dropped the baton like the 60's didn't happen, oh no!

Oh periscope up
Should be looking for a ladder
I need to see the commander in chief
And remind him what was passed onto me

Your mum don't sleep!
And the friends you keep!
I didn't raise a thief!
I didn't raise a thief!

But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And it's easy to ignore
Till they're knocking on the door of your homes

But the leaders of the free world
Are just little boys throwing stones
And it's easy to ignore
Till they're knocking on the door of your homes

Passing the gun from father to feckless son
We're climbing a landslide where only the good die young
Passing the gun from father to feckless son
We're climbing a landslide where only the good die young

I haven't worked out the first verse, but the rest of it for me is GHW Bush lamenting the mess made by his son.